Todd DeRose, Staff Writer

In GK Chesterton’s allegorical novel The Ball and the Cross, MacIan confronts the socialist journalist Turnbull over a blasphemous statement regarding the Virgin Mary that Turnbull has published in his newspaper, The Atheist.

Disillusioned with social apathy toward disputes over religious dogma, the two rivals resolve to fight a duel to the death.  The purpose of this duel—apart from settling their disagreements once and for all—is to provide the world with a wake-up call.  As Chesterton sees it, society has long since ceased to think of religious questions as deserving of any real attention.  In his novel, society sees religion as a matter of personal preference in which truth is irrelevant, and the prevailing mindset is that those who argue publicly about such matters really ought to be placed in an asylum.  Such in fact is the fate of MacIan and Turnbull after the authorities and others intervene several times to prevent them from fighting their duel.  The two come to see themselves as allies against a world that refuses to take either of them seriously.

In the century since Chesterton wrote this novel, the status quo has changed very little.  Rather than launch into social commentary, however, let us turn attention to one recent instance in which Notre Dame has shown a sort of reluctance to condone public engagement with worldviews, which, prima facie, stand in opposition to its Catholic identity.

The Secular Student Alliance (SSA), in the words of one of its current co-presidents, is a student group that “exists to provide a friendly, productive forum for discussion of topic relating to atheism, agnosticism, secularism and the debate over God’s existence.”  The club holds weekly discussion, and intends to organize a formal debate toward the end of the year with members of the Philosophy Club and Theology Club.  Despite rebranding itself several times (“Atheist Club” was just a little too blunt, apparently), the SSA has twice in consecutive years been denied official recognition by Notre Dame on the grounds that the club conflicts with the Catholic mission and character of the university.  The SSA was informed that Campus Ministry (CM) would not approve their application.  Shortly after its application was turned down for the second time, I spoke with a representative from CM on behalf of the SSA.  I expressed the view that recognizing the SSA should be seen as a natural extension of Notre Dame’s mission and character.

While the CM representative was sympathetic to my arguments and assented to my suggestion that “an atheist is closer to God than the merely cultural Christians who populate most of our campus,” he feared that official recognition would be, in his words, a “public relations lightning rod.”

He also expressed the concern that students who were “on the fence” with respect to their faith might lose it completely due to such a club.  I can only laugh at the idea that we are somehow spiritually protecting our students by keeping the SSA underground, in light of the fact that three of my closest friends entered Notre Dame as staunch Christians and have since fallen away—here of all places, at the premier Catholic institution in the nation.  What we need instead is for open and honest engagement with these issues to be taken more seriously and given a place in the university.  The philosophy and theology general education requirements do not suffice.  As one of my professors has cynically—but I think correctly—remarked, Notre Dame gives its students just enough philosophy and theology to dismantle their faith, and not enough for them to rebuild it again.

Nothing further came of my conversation with Campus Ministry.  Regardless, the SSA will be trying again to receive official recognition this spring.  We shall see if it fares any better this time around.

Should Notre Dame recognize such a club?  I think it goes without saying that the same spirit that led the university to host such events as “The God Debate” in 2010 and 2011 ought to lead her to encourage the same sort of dialogue within her own student body.  The SSA does not exist for the purpose of “spreading” atheism—however, even if it did, I would still consider it in line with the mission of Notre Dame as a Catholic institution, as Notre Dame herself has defined it.  One need look no farther than the mission statement to discover the hypocrisy of refusing to recognize SSA.  To give but one example, “Notre Dame’s character as a Catholic academic community presupposes that no genuine search for the truth in the human or the cosmic order is alien to the life of faith.”

The SSA is not a band of iconoclasts who will steal away the faith of other students or use university funds to hold barbecues on Fridays in Lent.  They are a part of the Notre Dame community in search of truth.  Let them have their snacks, t-shirts, movie watches and posters in O’Shaughnessy.  As a Catholic university, our true enemies are not the atheists and agnostics, but the apathetic, especially in a world that is as apathetic to the demands of religious inquiry as it is to the demands of justice.

Todd DeRose is a junior studying Philosophy and Theology.  He will accept challenges to public debate from any atheists, living or dead, and can be reached at tderose@nd.edu.